Repercussions

 Well darn. When I pulled Dan in to ride today I noticed a scrape of missing hair on his left forearm, that wasn't there the other day. I'm not sure if he just finally lost the hair from the gate or if it's a new wound. And then I noticed that his right forearm seems a little puffy... and feels a little edematous. Fluidy... more than edema I guess. Darn... did you hurt yourself flipping bud??

I decided to go ahead and groom and tack him up and feel him out. Worst case scenario, I'd just get off. So I groomed him and then I tried to find the rib he needed adjusting (per Liz) and then I found a big ol' knot and some heat in his nuchal ligament on both sides, but in different spots. So I worked on that. And once he realized I was working on him, he got into it. So... I'm not sure if that's a sore muscle or just actual muscle in a non-muscled area.. ha ha. But it was tight. And we got releases. I also did some work on his scapula area and... kind of feel like I was feeling some of the "yuckies" come out of him. He releases a few times, so hopefully at the very least, he felt nice. 

We tacked up and headed to the arena. I walked around a good bit and we did a turn on the forehand and a turn on the haunches both ways. It was quite nice! Good boy. Then I picked up the trot. And ugh.. he feels lame. Although he felt lame behind. It sort of felt like his "usual" lameness just a little worse. Like.. he worked out of it, and it was super subtle, but.. it was there. I tried to do a little bit of trotting to see if he'd really work out of it, but... while it got better, it didn't resolve. 

 

I figured I'd just try a quick canter to see and.. he said no. I mean... bless him, he said yes and tried, but he was clearly struggling hard. I tried both ways and interestingly, the left lead canter was harder today. He kept starting off with the right lead but we finally got it and it was awful and he wanted out of it, so I let him. The right lead wasn't as much of a struggle but he wasn't happy or soft in it, so I pulled him up. It's okay bud... we'll just give you another day or two off. 

 

Either he's just super sore from the gate incident, or he's sore from the combination of that and the long haul and the showing and finally he's just had enough. Or maybe I'm willing to hear that he's had enough since there's no show. (Although to be fair.. he definitely was happier cantering before today!). Or maybe he's just due for injections again?  I don't know. I'm going to hope and pray that it's just combined soreness from the show and hauling and then the bad life choice he made. I hate if he's more uncomfortable again, but... since I'll be out for mid Dec to mid February, I don't want to inject anything now. I guess I could shockwave, but... I'll probably give him another few days off and then reassess. Or just take him for a long walk Tuesday and then see how he feels Friday or Saturday and then decide what to do. He'll either be better or worse. Or I suppose he could be the same. Unless he gets worse, he's fine to do walking trail rides, so.. we can always just do that until February and then I'll do another lameness exam and work up. And I'll probably adjust, acupuncture, bemer, etc, all the things, plus shockwave him before then. I was contemplating doing a western dressage test or two at Ashland. Mostly because it's the Halloween show and that's HIS JAM! But, I'm pretty sure Kelly Eaton is the judge, which means it won't count for Western Dressage scores anyways, and... if he's sore.. that's not fair. But he is fun to dress up. Oh well. I'll see how he feels. Maybe he'll bounce back quick and I can reassess.